Women Who Thrive, Change The World!

Posts tagged ‘if not now when?’

For a long time now the title of this post had a certain meaning to me. Don’t hesitate. Seize the moment. Take action on what you have been secretly yearning for so long now. Life is very short and if not lived in the moment it seems even shorter. What do I really want to do with the time left to me?

All of this still holds true, but recently I have discovered that is just the surface of what happens when you pose this question to yourself and action is taken. Perhaps this question arises from a place deep inside when a pattern that has run your life is asking to be dissolved. Perhaps it is time to free yourself.

Imagine a young girl of 14 who has just lost her mother very suddenly. Her father is devastated by her death and goes into a place of depression leaving this young girl to take care of her brother who is 4 years younger, the household, and continue to do the dance of Junior High School, all without any grief counseling or emotional support. Consider what pattern this must have created.

Each of us has a story, a set of life circumstances that laid down a pattern(s) from which we have lived our lives in order to survive, belong and feel loved and seen. Many of us have deeply buried the sense of wholeness of who we are, and instead have lived life through the filter of this pattern. Then we are presented with “If not now, when?

In my case, and yes I was that young girl of 14, I learned to make others needs a priority making certain everyone was taken care of before my own needs so that I might feel love, appreciation, importance, and a sense of safety in my world. Over and over I played the part of selfless martyr to my patterns demand – until I woke up.

Life usually hands us circumstances in which we can pick apart our patterns a bit at a time. Then perhaps comes a more expansive awakening when all the threads that have held it together can no longer stay entangled. An awakening where we cannot blame outside circumstances or others for the traumatic or toxic places/relationships we have placed ourselves in, or give excuses for not being all that we were meant to be – but instead take responsibility for freeing ourselves from the patterns that have run our lives.

It is not comfortable to be so honest with yourself and bring the pattern out of the dark closet so that it can be seen – but it is indeed our job to simply do the work sacredly and silently into our own new awareness. Our life then has the potential to change and open to allow a connection to the wholeness of who we are….and those with “eyes to see and ears to hear” will respond.

There is a extremely contracted template for aging in our Western culture…and I, for one, am here to expand and redefine it – or possibly not to define it at all, but to say let us live our days/our years in a celebratory way! After all, if we weren’t aging, we would be dead!

When I come across examples of women who are living their passion well into their later years, I pay attention. These women are inspirations for us. They awaken possibility within our hearts, minds and bodies, and remind us that each moment of this precious life is here for exploring and living with all the passion we can possibly express and create. These possibilities are actually unlimited.

There is a lot of “press” these days about “letting go” of the constructs and habitual patterns that have kept us locked into an oftentimes “deadly” repetitive replay of a safe way of living, while resisting the changes that are mounting around us and the whispers of our heart and soul that beckon us to “please come out and play!” Sometimes this work seems daunting and we struggle with the back and forth between an assumed “safety” (most often conjured up by our rational minds) – and heart and soul freedom. In fact this is my passage and that of many others right now.

What if it was easier? What if we just merely accepted that we hold within us the Divine spark already and that we were meant to be full expressions of our deepest creative, sensual, and soulful natures. In that case all we would need to do is say YES! This is a YES! with no rational mind limitations. This is a YES! that says I am deeply interconnected and an important part of the whole. This is a YES! that says NOW is my time….and the next moment, and the next, and the next. The path may be strewn with unusual and sometimes challenging experiences…but they all can be seen and accepted as an invitation to live and breathe with the fullest expression that we are capable of in the moment.

Growing up I loved to watch the passion and art of dancing, and still love it…as well as dancing myself whenever I can. A couple of years ago now I took Cuban Salsa lessons for a year and even though I found myself going the wrong direction in the rueda (circle) at times under the Spanish verbal and hand sign direction of the teacher – my body, heart and soul sang with pleasure in every step and shake of my body.

When this video came to me I knew that it must be shared with you. Here is Sarah “Paddy” Jones, a 75 year old British lady who is still living her passion! Wonder if you will shed tears as I did witnessing her come to radical aliveness on stage??! Is this how alive you would like to be at this age – any age?? I know that I would!!!! If not NOW, when???

The video below is misnamed on top, so please disregard the title of Ginger Rogers who died when she was 83. Sarah “Paddy” Jones is British and living in Spain. She took up dancing 5 years ago after the death of her husband. She has seven grandchildren.

This second video is less performance oriented and more into the heart and soul of “Paddy”!